Smith, the reporter who broke the story, joined ESPN 950's Mike Missanelli yesterday to talk about the article.

"They wanted to keep it quiet obviously because this is something that they want to handle internally," Smith said. "You know how the Eagles do business. They want to handle it internally. But stuff gets out."

Smith said simply drafting an offensive player in the first round probably wouldn't be enough to appease McNabb.

"I don't think he's looking for somebody else's discarded No. 2 receiver or discarded No. 3 receiver," Smith said. "In my opinion, I think what would make him happy is an Anquan Boldin, if they could swing a trade for him, a T.J. Houshmandzadeh if they could sign him, a Tony Gonzalez if they could swing a trade for him."

Throughout the interview, it was clear that Smith agreed with McNabb that the Eagles need to surround him with better weapons.

"The bottom line is if he's going to stay, he wants to know that they're committed to building a Super Bowl team," Smith said.

"That's giving him the same weapons that Peyton Manning has gotten over the years. ...Every other franchise quarterback that's been successful has been put in that position to succeed with the talent around him except for this guy."

Sheil Kapadia is in his fifth season writing about the Eagles and the NFL for philly.com. His earliest
memories as a sports fan include several trips to Veterans Stadium with
his Dad. He's not a beat writer or an Insider, but is here to
discuss the NFL 365 days a year. E-mail him at skapadia@philly.com or
by clicking here